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Issues of Accessibility

Do all restaurants provide adequate access for disabled diners? Readers respond to Frank Bruni’s story. (Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)

I’ve seldom received as many e-mails from readers as I did in response to my Critic’s Notebook from last week about the obstacles that disabled diners confront. I apologize for taking a full week to get around to sharing these, but I was on vacation when the article ran and returned late yesterday.

In aggregate, the dozens of e-mails, most of them from people with disabilities, spoke to how frustrated they feel and how grateful they were to have their reality recognized. Many of the readers who wrote me drew special attention to the discrepancy between the promises of accessibility that restaurants make and the actual experience of visiting those restaurants. A few readers extolled restaurants that lived up to such promises and indeed accommodated wheelchairs, scooters and the like.

Below are some snippets of these e-mails, which I share because the restaurants mentioned might find useful tips, because the snippets provide compelling amplification of the themes the article discussed, and because they expose us to voices that don’t always get heard. Each block of text below is from a different e-mail.

Thanks so much for the article on accessibility for the disabled. It is amazing how little we think of these things until someone we love is humiliated and distressed at what is supposed to be a pleasant occasion-eating out at a lovely restaurant. I acquit restaurateurs and others of deliberate cruelty. But how much does this matter to the beloved Mom or friend or acquaintance, whose enjoyment of life is carelessly dismissed?

As a lifelong wheelchair user, I’m certainly familiar with the kinds of scenarios you describe and I’m delighted you’ve brought these problems to public awareness. The restaurants that irk me most are the ones that claim to be accessible when I call ahead but in fact have a small flight of steps just to get in the door —steps, no doubt, that the walking person who answered the telephone had never really noticed before. People want to be accommodating, to answer, “Yes, we are accessible,” either out of kindness or out of fear of legal action. But for me, once I’ve made the effort of getting to the restaurant, which can still be difficult despite accessible buses, it’s unforgivable. Sometimes it takes a “disability experience” —a broken leg, say, or a friend’s — to make people pay more attention to stairs and such, and truly understand what’s needed and why.

I too have found that in N.Y. most often restaurants say they are accessible and they really are not. Might just be one step but that’s enough to hinder movement. Did you know that people with disabilities eat out at least once a week? Our study for Open Doors Organization covered how much people with disabilities spend every year dining out and what would make them dine out more often.

Last summer, my husband was recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon (one of the two that keeps the kneecap in place). After a month of being cooped up, he was more than ready for a dinner outing. So we reviewed our list of favorites, and called around to see if they were accessible to a very tall, large man needing a walker to get around. We found two not mentioned on your list: The Atlantic Grill, on 3rd Avenue near 77th Street, was terrific. Nicely spacious between tables, and very accommodating. The entrance was easy for him to negotiate, we were put at a table where he’d have plenty of room underneath for his leg, and they stashed his walker near the entrance and brought it back to the table at the end of our meal. Restrooms are also on the same level as the dining room, which was helpful (although I think it slopes upward slightly). The good food and fine service were also pluses. Totonno’s, on 2nd Avenue around 80th Street (I forget the exact locale) is a nice, lower-cost accessible spot, as long as you go relatively early (or on a summer weekend when most UES residents are off in the Hamptons). We were seated at a table where his leg was safe, and we could store the walker next to us.

My adventure-loving sister has a disability and we run into this in every place we ever visit. She does not live in Manhattan but does travel to the city by herself on the train. I could tell you stories about restaurant employees who, while complaining all the while, have unloaded back elevators loaded with garbage and empty wine bottles so that she can have access to the place.

As a wheelchair user since birth and a Manhattan resident since the mid-70’s, it never fails to amuse me at how easily the word “accessible” is tossed out. As you proved, that term is very much open to interpretation, especially when you aren’t the one disabled. Dehydrating yourself, as was mentioned in your piece, is standard procedure for those of us headed out to eat (or anything else for that matter) because we have no idea what we’re going to find once we’re out there. Unfortunately, restaurants are only the tip of the iceberg in this town.

I hope that readers and restaurateurs will use your article to think harder about the meaning of hospitality for both people with and without disabilities. As an aside, accessibility issues abound, even on the NY Times web site. One of my favorite features at www.nytimes.com is the video clips and slide shows. However, they’re completely inaccessible to people with hearing impairments.

As a longtime wheelchair user, I read your Critic’s Notebook entry ‘When Accessibility Isn’t Hospitality’ with great interest. I hope you will not be offended when I say that I was terribly disappointed by it. I do think there is a story to be told about restaurants and accessibility, but I did not find much substance in your column. It struck me as an ineffectual and superficial piece of reporting — a couple of anecdotes, a couple of phone calls and, voila, a column . . . I also think you might have discussed the disparity between what the law theoretically requires places of public accommodation to provide and what they actually do provide. And it might be interesting to assess how well the City agencies charged with enforcing these laws are doing their job.

A little over six years ago I crashed on my bicycle and broke my neck. As a result, I’m what medical folks call a C-4/5 tetraplegic (which is the more linguistically accurate way of saying “quadriplegic”). I use a power wheelchair to get around these days. By no stretch am I what anybody would call a foodie, but — like most people — I enjoy going out with friends. I have several favorite places in my neighborhood (I live in Chicago) where the entrances are easily navigated, the restaurants are clean, the food is good, and the staffs are friendly. Going beyond these known quantities, though, is generally a crapshoot. In our local papers, you’re pressed to find a restaurant that doesn’t claim to be accessible, but experience has told me that what that means is wide open to interpretation. In many cases, it means that there are steps up or down, but busboys & waitstaff can be enlisted to carry you over such obstacles. (This, though, is a nonstarter for someone like me. My wheelchair alone weighs in at over 300 pounds. Throw my 130 lb. frame on top of that, and something’s going to give — either a poor worker, or some hardware on my chair.) In other cases, it means you can dine alfresco, but don’t expect to be able to get to the restroom inside.

My recent wedding occasioned a long search for a restaurant in lower Manhattan that was truly wheelchair accessible. We called and/or visited upwards of 50 places, when we finally found the Five Points restaurant on Great Jones Street. Not only was the staff enormously accommodating and good-natured, and the food delicious, but the entire facility (dining room, bathroom, bar area) was also very wheelchair-friendly.

It’s understandable that cozy little NYC restaurants might not have enough of a turn radius to accommodate wheel chairs, frustrating though it may be. Having had a relative in a wheelchair I can sympathize with your dining companion. But not slicing a pizza for someone who had just undergone neurosurgery on her (writing) hand because “the chef doesn’t do that,” forcing her husband to slice it for her, is unconscionable. I’m talking about your beloved Franny’s . . . My friend, whose hand was encased in a shoebox-sized Styrofoam splint, was denied that simple request. Shame on them! What if she was alone or accompanied by a quadriplegic? Who’d have cut her pie then? Would she have had to take off her shoes and use her feet?

Thorough and well written article on accessibility in restaurants. Just unfair. Where does it end? How many tens of thousands of dollars shall be devoted to accessibility for a tiny fraction of diners? Even if the issue is just a matter of having staff clear the way, how is it possible to rearrange the duties of a bustling kitchen to accommodate a customer in a wheelchair without delay or inconvenience? The accommodations we’d all like to see are impractical to provide with the efficiency and comfort you seem to want. No one is guaranteed the same speed of service and clear path to a dining table. That the restaurants take the extra time to help those with handicaps should be good enough. The disabled aren’t guaranteed the same experience as the able bodied. Fact is, there are drawbacks to being disabled, not the least of which is that cramped NYC restaurants cannot afford additional real estate or staff to adequately address the shortcomings you point out. I applaud your sentiment but lament your unclear, unbalanced thinking on the matter. You gave a reasonable nod to the impracticalities of equal access but refused to speak the unspeakable: the disabled will never be fully accommodated, nor should they be. The costs necessary for that would diminish the experiences of the 99.5% of the rest of us. Rather, all people should be accommodated as best as is practical. Safe, politically correct ending to your story. Real safe.

To Alan: there are several reasons I find your post illogical and offensive. To say that “the disabled will never fully be accommodated” is, alas, probably true; but to say that should not be is unconscionable. Unfortunately, I think too many think like you; but what are thousands of dollars to you if it’s spent by an owner, restauranteur, etc.? And how expensive do you think the fancy seats, water treatments, etc. are in so many of NYC’s upscale restaurants?
Agreed that many restaurants, especially the tiny and the struggling, can’t afford to make themselves more accommodating; but the big expensive restaurants that are already charging, and spending ,ludicrous amounts (on various useless design features) should take accessibility into account.

I’m a wheelchair user and we mostly patronize the same restaurants in my neighborhood, the ones that I can get into. Other restaurants are losing our business! Sometimes when I’m out in a different neighborhood and hungry, I’ll get “curbside” service, which means I have to wait by the inaccessible step to a restaurant or deli until a diner gets the attention of the workers inside or the workers notice me and come out. I’m a vegan and want to eat healthfully so it isn’t always possible to patronize accessible food establishments, although I prefer to.

Last December, our Community Board held a holiday party at a local restaurant which the Board staff thought was accessible. We all contributed to the party. When I got there, I was met with 2 very inaccessible entrances with steps! Of course, people tried to offer to help me but I also have a 300 pound wheelchair and no one had a ramp. The restaurant said they “help” wheelchair users in all the time and the person who set the event up thought the venue was accessible because ambulance workers had carried someone out in a wheelchair from the restaurant.

One of the co-owners promied to make his restaurant wheelchair accessible, but it was lip service and the restaurant, Chadwicks, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn,is just as inaccessible as it always was. I called them today and they are still saying they are accessible.

I went home and the rest of the people partied on.

We have a long way to go in educating the public in what accessibility really is and in making them really care about it and our business. If I can’t get into a restaurant, my family and friends don’t eat there, either.

Although this isn’t the best forum, I would still like to take a moment to apologize to the guest who dined at franny’s in a splint and was denied the request of having her pizza cut. We do serve the pies at franny’s unsliced and often receive requests to have the pies sent back to the kitchen to be cut and therefore the staff often has to explain that we do not cut the pizza. Whoever denied her request was unfortunately mis-informed, as we have and will continue to cut pizza for people who are disabled or injured. I offer our apologies and hope she will return to franny’s.

This is a reply to Alan. I am in a wheelchair. Why should I have any less right to have access to a business than you do? Does the fact that you can walk make it that you now have more rights than I do? It’s bad enough that I have to deal with the limitations that I have, but then to have more limits placed on me by someone who makes statements such as ” The disabled aren’t guaranteed the same experience as the able bodied” and “the disabled will never be fully accommodated, nor should they be” angers me. In other words, you don’t want to be inconvienienced by the accomodations that need to be made for the handicapped.

We ALL have rights, ALL of us…….. including restaurateurs who risk their fortunes and bust theit butts 7 days a week to follow their dreams. Setting up financial and practical roadblocks to that freedom to accommodate 1% of their potential market is INSANE. I am deeply sorry for offending anyone but the fact is that the misfortunes of a few shouldn’t cost the rest of us. Sad fact is that accessibility has costs and I missed the part of the Constitution that guarantees you the right to be made whole by a small private enterprise.

Your article is telling me something I already know because I have MS. The numbers of restaurants in NY that are not accessible are staggering. What is a whole other issue are the bathrooms, clearly what is accessible and what is not seems to be in the eye of the beholder. If you cannot get a wheelchair in the bathroom it is not accessible. Luckily I don’t need a wheelchair, but I do need an accessible bathroom with universal door handles and that does not cost any more than any other handles cost. Then there is the issue of tables being so close together how could anyone get through, let alone a disabled person. Think about a blind person trying to navigate tables at your favorite restaurant. Disabled Americans represent $175 billion in discretionary income. A Harris Poll found in terms of restaurants, 71% of adults with disabilities dine out at least once a week and also shows a 6% increase in casual dining from 2002 to 2005. To attract this clientele, Fuddruckers restaurants are offering such things as Braille/large print menus, customer service training and larger pathways between tables. In the 2005 poll, 40% of adults with disabilities complained of the lack of room between tables.
Tell Alan Meltzer that legally ADA provides that his restaurant like all others are mandated to be compliant, lip service does not work. I hope no one in his family ever becomes disabled, although I get the sense that he already is. Being out with someone who is disabled and going through some of these moments can be so devastating and humiliating to both parties. Universal Design would work for all of us and not cost
that much.
Stacey

Re. Alan’s comments,
It may come as a surprise, but the proportion of Americans with disabilities is well above the 1% you cited, it’s actually about 20%. Not all of these individual have mobility concerns, but many do. In a city like NYC, the proportion is even higher since many people choose to live in urban centers for convenience/general accessibility.

In a perfect world all buildings and businesses would use universal design, and would meets the needs of people with disabilities as well everyone else. The world is not perfect, but business owners should at least be aware of their actual accessibility and answer honestly. Do not tell someone you are accessible if there are stairs/narrow walkways/small restrooms.

There should be an organization, private preferably, that examines restaurants for accessibility. The cost of the examination (which should not be exorbitant) should be paid by the restaurant, and restaurants which pass should receive an official certificate that would permit them to advertise themselves as accessible. No certificate, no mention of accessibility in advertisements. (I’m sure newspapers, mindful of their disabled readers, would voluntarily accept such rules.)

If the Orthodox Union and other certifiers (all private companies) can accomplish this for customers who keep kosher, why can’t an intelligent and principled entrepreneur do this for the equally large disabled community?

And Alan is living in a dreamland if he thinks 1% of the population is disabled and requires accessible restaurants. It’s actually more than 20% and includes virtually everyone over 70, many of whom find stairways and narrow walkways difficult to handle due to vision problems. Perhaps he thinks the number is 1% because he personally doesn’t see many disabled around, which may be because where he lives and works isn’t accessible.

Charlene,
I live in Florida (plenty of older folk and those unable to navigate tight spaces comfortably or easily), take care of my very elderly parents and I understand the limitations for those not as able bodied as me.
I think your idea of a private certifying agency offering it’s imprimatur for achieving a specified level of accommodation to the disabled is terrific. Brilliant idea. Those on their high horses would be well advised to get off the horse and do the hard work of crafting such a solution. Kudos, Charlene. So easy for some to throw stones at the world, much harder to affect a sensible improvement. That was a truly great idea; now lets see if the bloggers passing ignorant judgments on me and lamenting the current state of affairs will take the initiative to solve these problems in the sensible way you suggested. Charlene, that was the first great and new idea in this thread and I hope someone gets fired up enough to get that ball rolling.
Alan

I can only just begin to echo the sentiments of those who have emailed and written before me regarding accessibility is not hospitality’. That being said my girlfriend and I are both chair users. Everytime she visits me on the UES there is the dance, or perhaps hopscotch to find accessible places for dinner. I commend [and recommend] finestra along with the boulud, and atlantic grill previously mentioned

That being said, we were dissapointed to find nino’s completely inaccessible (though they’d been asked clearly 3 times by phone) and I’ve had odd service [saucy seemed overly worried we’d cause a mess]

The issues extend out beyond this town (xaviar’s of garrison has equated a jerry rigged picnic table with a ‘ramped entrance’) but I do commend you sir, and your newspaper for pardon the pun keeping this issue on the front burner.